It is routine medical practice in most health care facilitates to treat and medicate a patient by introducing therapeutic agents, drugs, medicines, nutrients, and various other liquids directly into the blood stream of the patient through systems commonly known as intravenous (IV) administration systems. Indeed, it is not uncommon for a critically ill patient to have several such systems concurrently operative to provide differing treatment agents. In some acute cases, ten to fifteen, or even more, different intravenous administration systems may be simultaneously connected to the patient.
A typical, commonly utilized, intravenous administration system consists of a length of transparent tubing having a hollow needle coupled to each end. The needle on one end of the tubing is adapted to be inserted, through a sealing member, into a supply reservoir containing a prescribed medication or other prescribed liquid. The reservoir may be in the form of a bag or a bottle, and is generally suspended, with the coupling to the tubing at a lowest elevation, from a pole so as to be above the level of the patient, thus enabling gravity flow of the liquid into the tubing. The needle on the other end of the tubing is adapted to be insertable into a venous blood vessel of the patient, or into a device known as an infusion port coupled to a needle inserted appropriately into the patient. The length of the tubing associated with the intravenous administration system is typically significantly longer than that necessary to reach from the supply reservoir to the patient so as to allow for slack and accommodate remote placement of the supply reservoir relative to the patient and to accommodate patient movement and access to the patient by health care professionals.
Most such intravenous systems are used to communicate medications and the like at controlled dosage rates. The most basic manner of controlling the dosage rate through a particular intravenous administration system is to place an adjustable clamp on the tubing at an appropriate location along its length, the clamp serving to partially or completely transversely compress the tubing so as to decrease the flow therethrough. More sophisticated intravenous administration systems include a monitoring mechanism which can responsively monitor and adjust the flow rate through the tubing, a portion of which is passed through the mechinism. Some such mechanism may even provide for an intermittent periodic introduction of a controlled dose of a particular prescribed medication.
As indicated hereinabove, an acutely ill patient may be subjected to concurrent medication through a plurality of intravenous administration systems, some directed to individual intravenous needles and others combined to flow through a common shared needle by inserting one of the systems into a branched infusion port. Sometimes a single needle inserted into the patient will be utilized to communicate a multiplicity of different medications, each entering the needle terminus portion through a separate, sequentially deployed, infusion port.
Common features of presently used intravenous administration systems include the need for maintaining sterility of the component elements up to the time of installation to the patient. Minimization of all risks of infection is paramount, since the typical patient usually has enough adverse conditions without adding any through mishandling or soilage of the intravenous administration systems. Thus, the tubing portions are normally available in acute sickrooms in the form of prepackaged, sterile lengths, with attached sterile needles. Additionally, use of an intravenous administration system, particularly when multiple systems are being used, quite often arises in very serious or life threatening situations, wherein every second of time can be crucial. Time cannot usually be spared to enable trimming component lengths for neatness. The entire tubing length is utilized, even if such excess length results in adding a significant length portion to a tangle of tubing from other intravenous administration systems. Clearly, it does not require the addition of a very large number of intravenous administration systems before the health care professional performing the installation procedures will lose direct cognizance of the specific contents of each intravenous administration system unless reference is made to the identifications on the several supply reservoirs.
Since care of such acutely ill patients is substantially a continuously on-going task, several different health care professionals will be given primary care responsibilities for a given patient during each twenty-four hour time period. Moreover, each health care professional is likely to have primary care responsibility for more than one such patient. Further complication arises when it is recognized that relief health care professionals will, from time to time, become involved with a given patient during meal and rest periods of the primary care professional, and the recognition that the onset of critical episodes requiring heroic measures will bring a number of additional health care professionals into the treatment pattern, the additional personnel lacking the detailed cognizance of the intravenous administration systems, their specific contents, and their mutual relative organization. In each instance, in order to accomplish immediate medical orders, it is often necessary to locate the intravenous administration system providing a particular medication to the patient so that system may be unregulated, discontinued, or overdriven by a forced flow from contraction of the supply reservoir.
Heretofore, critical moments have been expended to trace the intravenous administration systems from their respective supply reservoirs to at least the location along the length of the tubing at which the clamp is deployed in order to perform the ordered emergency control of the proper intravenous administration system. Some health care professionals have recognized the potential time consumption of such tracing operations, and have devised individual solutions, such as taping each line to a bed rail or other structure, and by writing the name of the contents of a particular system on the corresponding tape holding its tubing in place. Another expedient used where allowed is to place a similar tape identification tag around the tubing near the patient. However, none of such individually improvised measures have achieved a level of acceptance that would indicate development of a standard procedure or approach that could be adopted for use by all health care professionals and institutions.
It has become apparent from the above that a device for organizing and identifying a plurality of intravenous administration lines, which device can be readily relocatably deployed in a sickroom setting, and which can be discarded upon completion of its use, would be advantageous. The inventor herein is not aware of any such device that is fully suitable for adaption to perform the desired medical functions, and suited to meet the objectives of the present invention. Those devices of a similar nature that may be found in the prior art presently within the knowledge of the applicant reside principally within those classes of technology addressing support clamps for electrical wires or cable, with a lesser number of references considering support brackets for plumbing systems. Examples of such prior art can be identified in the following briefly described references, which are not exhaustive of the totality of similar references.
An early, complex, holder for a plurality of wires is provided by the "Wire Holder" of the patent to Findlay, U.S. Pat. No. 2,650,948, issued Sep. 1, 1953. Upwardly extending arms disposed on either side of an elongated base element are provided with a plurality of notches accepting individual wires therein, the notches of one arm being in transverse registration with corresponding notches of the other arm. The base element may be rigidly attached to a supporting structure, typically using screws. A cover bar, configured to fit between the pair of arms, is hinged to one end of the base element so as to pivot downwardly between the arms and against wires held in the notches. The opposed end of the base element is provided with a pivoting clasp member adapted to engage a spring element on the cover bar. Each of the wires thus held are slightly deformed between the upwardly extending arms so as to rest on the base element, thereby rigidly affixing such wires in position, including precluding motions of the wires in their respective longitudinal directions.
Wilmes, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,253,629, issued Mar. 3, 1981, describes a "Guide and Marking Member for Electrical Cables". In this device, resiliently deformable wings, having a mutually dihedral relationship with adjacent wings, are supported from a base portion such that an electrical cable may be forced between pairs of wings and against the base portion so as to be captured and held in an aperture area extending transversely of the base portion. A separable plate element, containing an identification of a particular cable, may be snapped into a preformed recess on the obverse surface of the base portion. It appears from the teaching of Wilmes that this device is often to be utilized in a freely suspended manner intermediate of the length of the cable passed therethrough.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,579,310, issued Apr. 1, 1986 to Wells, et al., for "Guides for Organizing Wires", teaches the construction of an integral plastic strip formed into a comb-like piece having an elongated row of upstanding teeth or tabs, with an arcuate cove-like aperture formed at the roots between adjacent teeth. An electrical wire or cable may be forced into a cover to be captured and held securely therein, with the elongated plastic strip being appropriately attached to a supporting structure, thereby providing a supporting guide for a plurality of such electrical wires or cables. Deployment of similar plastic strips in a spaced apart manner along the course of such plurality of wires enables the wires to be extended along their path in a neatly organized manner. Similar plastic strips may be stacked at each location to provide organization for multiples of the plurality held by a single plastic strip. The tabs between coves provide locations where the nature of the adjacent wire or cable may be identified, although space for such identification is limited.
A "Cable Support with Tines" has been patented by Muz as U.S. Pat. No. 4,660,790, issued Apr. 28, 1987. This device, intended for providing separation between elements of a plurality of cables, consists of two mating elements of substantially identical configuration. Each element comprises an elongated strip with a plurality of upstanding tines spaced apart along an upper surface. A notch is formed on one end of a lower surface, obverse to the surface bearing the tines. The tine at the opposed end is formed to extend upwardly for a distance equivalent to the thickness of the base portion and to then extend parallel with the top ends of the tines for a distance matching the extent of the notch formed at the other end of the element. Taking a pair of such elements, inverting one of the elements to have its tines directed in a downward direction, placing a plurality of cables individually into the spaces between tines, the upper element is then translated along the length of the cables so as to engage its lip with the notch of the other element while its notch is being engaged by the overlapping lip of the other element. When the elements are so engaged, the several cables pass through substantially rectangular areas between the matched tines. It would appear that this device is primarily useful as a freely suspended organizing device, without intent to attach it to supporting structure.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,775,121, issued Oct. 4, 1988 to Carty, for "Cable Clamp", describes a clamp having a plurality of cable supporting arcuate notches, the device being substantially integrally formed with a covering bar to enclose the arcuate notches. The cover bar is coupled, at one end thereof, to the notched portion by a flexible hinge portion capable of allowing the other end of the cover bar to be laterally translated with respect to the notched portion. The free end of the cover bar is provided with a barb-like protrusion which engages a similarly formed female opening formed laterally in the notched portion. A visible recessed area is provided on the exterior surface of the cover portion into which an elongated strip may be placed to identify the contents of cables passing through the individual arcuate notches, the strip being held in the recess by a transparent cover held in the recess by friction.
Kraus has devised a "Plastic Holding Element" for fastening at least one pipe or tubular member to a supporting structure, which device is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,881,705, issued Nov. 21, 1989. This device comprises a base portion and a cover portion, the cover being integrally formed with the base portion and attached thereto by a flexible hinge portion. The base portion is further formed to include a plurality of transversely oriented semi-circular channels, not necessarily of equal radius, accepting pipes to be supported. The cover portion is further formed to have a partially deformable pad element thereon which securely holds the pipes in their channels when the cover is closed. The free end of the cover portion is provided with a clasp engaging a mating clip on the base portion, While the surface of the cover portion appears to have a significant surface area, Kraus does not appear to consider using this surface to identify the pipes.
As indicated earlier herein, other references appear in the prior art. In each of these devices, including those described hereinabove, organization of a plurality of conduits appears to rely upon securely grasping the individual conduits, most often through a mechanism that applies transverse pressure on the individual conduits, which, in the case of a flexible fluid conducting conduit, may adversely affect the flow rate through such conduits. It also appears that, apart from manufacturing complexities, each of the prior art devices are intended to be used for extended periods, and reused as required. Identification of individual conduits passing through such devices is, where considered, of a permanent nature, and most of such devices provide only limited areas for inscribing such identifications.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous is to provide a method for organizing and identifying a plurality of independent intravenous administration systems.
It would be further advantageous to provide a method for organizing a plurality of independent intravenous administration lines, said method utilizing a pre-formed and preassembled organizing device that is readily attachable to a convenient supporting surface proximate to a patient in a sickroom setting.
It would be desirable to provide a method for identifying a plurality of independent intravenous administration lines, utilizing a pre-formed and preassembled organizing device that provides a surface for erasably indicating the content and/or destination of each intravenous administration line passing through such an organizing device.
It would be desirable to provide a pre-formed and preassembled device capable of retaining elements of a plurality of independent intravenous administration lines in a discrete relative relationship.
It would be further desirable to provide a pre-formed and preassembled device capable of accepting written indicia of the contents of individual intravenous adminstration lines passing therethrough in a discretely organized relative mutual relationship.
It would be advantageous to provide a pre-formed and preassembled device retaining individual elements of a plurality of intravenous administration lines without appreciable deformation or constriction of either or any of said individual intravenous administration lines of said plurality.
It would be further advantageous to provide a pre-formed and preassembled device for organizing and identifying elements of a plurality of intravenous administration lines into a discrete relative mutual relationship, which device is readily, relocatably, attachable to a convenient supporting surface or structure proximate to a patient to whom such plurality is directed.
It would be further advantageous to provide a pre-formed and preassembled device for organizing and identifying individual elements of a plurality of intravenous administration systems which device may readily be sterilized and packaged for rapid deployment and attachment when use thereof is required.
It would be desirable to provide a pre-formed and preassembled device for organizing and identifying elements of a plurality of intravenous administration lines, which device may be readily fabricated at a minimal expense sufficient to enable discarding such a device upon completion of its use in association with treatment provided to an individual patient.